I’m an illustration major at MICA (please check out my bloghere as a way to support me for making this post!), so this is catered towards what I learned in my illustration critiques and from professional illustrators. I think these tips can go for other artists too, though!
None of these are things that work all the time, but they’re general “rules” I’ve been taught. You can break them, just know why you’re doing so! These are just things I copied from my critique notes, so most are general tips I’ve heard and copied down.
General
Enjoy what you’re working on, but be okay with changing it.
Anatomy, and accurately trying to portray it, is really important.
Time and space can be portrayed through focus and distance.
When working digitally, make some of your own textures (traditionally) and scan them in. Adding them into a picture adds an element of your own hand and makes your work stand apart from other digital work.
Contrast is a great thing.
Saturation is a great thing, especially in watercolor (soak that brush with pigment!).
Your style should never draw an obscene amount of attention to itself; it should just work fluidly.
Consider what medium(s) work best for your idea.
Cover your paint palettes (particularly reusable ones) to make sure dust doesn’t get in the paints.
Spin the page when you’re working. The time is takes to do that will show some major improvement in your art!
Use dark watercolor and then a light colored pencil on top, never the other way around (it will look muddy and ruin clarity).
Make sure to sometime pin or place you piece far away and step away so you can see the whole composition (or zoom out a lot digitally).
Consider the genre and audience of what you’re working for (and if it’s yourself, then you’re your own audience!).
Illustration is a branch of fine art, don’t forget that.
Fantasy art usually needs a lot of high detail.
Coloring
Pick an overall color palette to work in, then add in other colors as needed.
Complementary colors (ones opposite on the color wheel), when placed next to each other, can pop an object forward or draw attention to it. (Think of a red ornament on a green Christmas tree).
Designate the shadows to be either warm or cool, and the highlights to be the opposite. Stay with this throughout the entire picture.
All colors have a warm and a cool hue (cool and warm blues, cool and warm oranges).
The more saturated a color is, the more it will pop forward in the picture plane.
Don’t use colors right out of the paint tube.
When making a shadow, tint the color with the complementary tone (it makes it a little more grey).
Colorizing backgrounds lines makes them recede in a colored image with line art.
Blue and pink tones are great for use in skin tones.
Flats need to be fairly differentiated colors.
Drawing
The reference should never be an excuse for a misleading or awkward pose. You have the artistic license to alter an awkward pose and not just draw from a photo.
With scratchy or textured line art, find some places of solid black too, to allow the eye to rest (or where you want something to pop out).
How you render all the elements of the picture is what makes your own individual style.
When something is illuminated, it should be the brightest part of the composition.
Anything with a straight angle (like the corner of a room) has one wall/side being lighter in value than the other. There is a crisp distinction.
Sometimes adding more lessens the strength of the image.
Fabric folds are crisp, if they’re too soft they’ll look like clay.
Line heaviness and weight can determine depth.
Anatomy/Characters
Anatomical consistency is very important.
Inside of the mouth is usually dark.
Show character motivations with actions and poses.
You can crop a face or figure to set a mood.
In any and every picture, pay special and close attention to the hands, feet, and face.
Learning musculature, even if you use reference, will help you create the body you want for your character. Understand the human form…it’s easier to alter if you understand it in the first place.
To pop a figure forward, add a little bit of rim lighting (great with backlighting).
Composition
Avoid spots where a line or shape comes really close, but doesn’t cross, the edge of the paper. This is called a tangent and tangents are bad (they suck the eye into just that one spot and stop the composition).
Nothing in the picture is accidentally there, it is all drawn by you, so make sure everything has a conscious placement.
Don’t crop anything that shows essential character expression (including essential parts of the pose).
Never crop a figure at a joint (it makes the limb look amputated unintentionally).
Consider how you show detail with smaller characters…what are the essential characteristics?
Shapes of color or tone can make great framing devices.
For the most part, render the foreground with more clarity than the background…you want atmospheric perspective to be used to make it look like it’s receding.
Line heaviness/weight can combat (in a good way) any very dark areas.
When the character breaks a border (shape, line, panel etc), it shows dominance.
Make the shape of your negative space visually interesting.
“Cornerstops” are great. They are a compositional element that visually blocks your eye from running off the corner of a page.
Shadows can be a great compositional element.
Narrative Illustration (Portraying the narrative)
It is a successful illustration if the story is told.
Use every element of the image to tell the story.
Sometimes you have to take out elements you love for the sake of storytelling.
Think of images as being fast/slow, quiet/loud. What techniques portray these senses for you, and why are you using such techniques? What areas of the picture are slower and faster, why those areas?
Indicate how lavish or simple a place is by the details you choose to include in the background.
Don’t make it obvious that you “curated” the picture; it should look natural.
Cover illustrations don’t always need big and bold text, as long as there’s a strong narrative being portrayed.
Something mid action carries the narrative better than pre or post action.
You should be able to tell a story without relying on text.
Sequential Art (Comics, etc)
Color between panels can draw the eye around the page.
Big jumps in narrative can add humor and excitement, just make sure to think of why you are having the jump there.
When starting a sequence, make it obvious where you start (establishing shot; biggest to smallest, etc).
Make sure panels can read as separate images even if you took the gutter away.
Smaller panels are frequently used for faster/quicker actions.
Removing the background in certain panels allows the scene to be read faster; you only need one background per page (unless the scene in the background is changing).
Style, readability, and timing are key things to keep in mind.
Does the punch line/climax happen at the right time on the page?
Before planning a page, ask yourself: “How much time is elapsing between the first and last panel?”
Consider panel shape and size.
The composition, and where the eye flows inside every panel, informs where the eye travels to next…compositionally lead the eye from panel to panel.
The more panels you have, generally the more time goes on.
Don’t rely on speed/action lines to make things dramatic.
Give word bubbles a little breathing room.
When doing a graphic novel, you’ll usually have to redraw the first few pages since the characters will come more naturally to you by the end pages.
There is a design element to sound effects.
Digital Art (Mostly Photoshop based, but some are general tips)
Before printing, you usually want to switch your file to CMYK (though save a file in RGB too). Print at 300 dpi.
Before printing, you can up the brightness, saturation and contrast until it just starts to look awkward. You’ll learn the best settings for the printer you print at.
Don’t place digital textures anywhere. Consciously arrange them.
Don’t overrender. Digital art tends to be the most successful when it feels less digital than someone would expect.
If your color scheme doesn’t look cohesive, you can use a fill layer of one specific color to unify everything (Layer->fill layer). Lower the opacity to around 15-30%.
OH MY GOD whyyyy did no one tell me you’re supposed to send thank-yous after interviews?? Why would I do that???
“Thank you for this incredibly stressful 30 minutes that I have had to re-structure my entire day around and which will give me anxiety poos for the next 24 hours.”
I HATE ETIQUETTE IT’S THE MOST IMPOSSIBLE THING FOR ME TO LEARN WITHOUT SOMEONE DIRECTLY TELLING ME THIS SHIT
NO ONE TOLD YOU???? WTF! I HAVE FAILED YOU.
Also:
Dear ______:
Thank you so much for the opportunity to sit down with you (&________) to discuss the [insert job position]. I am grateful to be considered for the position. I think I will be a great fit at [company name], especially given my experience in __________. [insert possible reference to something you talked about, something that excited you.] I look forward to hearing from you [and if you are feeling super confident: and working together in the future].
You can start with a template like that, but a big part of the follow-up letter is to either ask a question based on something you heard in the interview, or clarify something you said. In either case you’re meant to keep it short. Something like “you said that you encourage employees to eventually try to get certified. Since that’s something I would want to pursue, do you mean ____ certification?” or “I mentioned that I have experience using photoshop. I thought I should mention I also have experience using Clip Studio Paint”.
The follow-up letter isn’t just a formality, it’s a way to show that you retained information from the interview. It says “Not only am I eager, I paid enough attention that I can formulate a question or give additional information”.
That’s the useful information they get from it – that you’re eager and you took the interview seriously enough to remember it afterward.
i hope youre all lying and hyping your cv/resume’s up
i have never gotten an interview and not been offered a job position after it
I mean lets be honest if everyone else is gassing theirs up like no tomorrow and you’re being as honest as you can who th are the recruitment team going to be more interested in
There’s people working in my banks head office with me WITH MUCH MORE EXPERIENCE than me BUT ARE GETTING PAID LESS
we’re doing the exact same job role
the point I’m trying to make here is if you’ve handled finances for a company you’re now what i would call a treasurer my g, if you’ve done admin work you are now a secretary (or as I’ve put Management secretary)
you help some kid with his homework? you’re a private tutor.
keep your bullets points for the job role as concise and important sounding as possible AND ALWAYS EMPHASIS THAT YOURE A TEAM PLAYER IF YOURE GOING TO WORK IN A TEAM.
go into that interview room and get your story straight the night before and remember that interviews are two way conversatons yes they might be grilling you but at the end of it make sure to grill them BACK. do you have any hesitations about my qualifications? my suitability for the job? any feedback on my cv? how long have you been working at this company? do you like it here? whats the work environment like?
I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS GET THE SAME FEEDBACK WHEN THEY GET BACK IN TOUCH WITH ME
“ive never been asked those questions before” / “you were one of the strongest candidates”
throughout the interview emphasise that youre about progression, that you want more responsibilities than you did at your previous job, tell them the hours here are more suitable for me than my last ones were, AND WHEN IT COMES TO SALARY NEGOTIATION its all about continuity. tell them again that it boils down to progression. make up a reasonable figure for how much you were paid in your last role (do your research for how much the industry youre applying to or the role youre applying for pays, base it on that) tell them you expect more than you were previously paid. do not give them a figure. progression is your primary focus, tell them if youre progressing youre happy. leave it at that.
LIE THROUGH YOUR TEETH AND GET THAT MONEY
!!!!!!
& if you can use your friends who got them good ass jobs as “former supervisors” for references.
OKAY THESE ARE AMAZING AND ALL BUT WITH MY LUCK I WOULD JUST
There is actually a free program everyone can download called DesignDoll which has unlimited posable models if you need more then just two or just simply don’t have the money to buy these figurines. The program is easy to work with and I’d recommend it to everybody!
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